Weekend DIY

The past couple of weekends have found Tom waking up very early on a Saturday morning and requesting we take 'quick' trip to B&Q. This is because he has 'ideas'. These then turn into 'projects'. Then amazing things happen.

Pallet Bench

The first project, and the one I have to say I was most excited about, was making a bench to fit inside the archway in our tiny back yard. (Also Tom has pointed out that this way my 'idea' so I get the blame)

With the help of one pallet gifted to us by my dad and another acquired from a bin at university, a large number of screws and a lot of sanding, the bench was born!

Basic design involved cutting one pallet in half (to form the bottom and the back) then cutting another pallet in quarters to provide the legs and extra boards to make it look nice. 

My main job was sanding, but I got a bit bored and started planting things instead (more on that later)

As you can see it's nice and sturdy!

The Battering Ram

Tom's second project started as an indoor climbing wall but had to be downscaled once we actually looked at how much room we had. Not got all the photos at the moment but it is basically a could of planks of wood with proper climbing holds mounted to the underneath. The idea is it will make us both amazing climbers (more so because you now have to climb under it to get into my room).

Tom demonstrating how it works

Alex demonstrating how not to use it

As well as the DIY we luckily had enough sun to break out the first BBQ of the year. Burgers and sausages for all!

A few bike repairs

After having a very near miss with a broken derailleur and a chain wedged between the wheel and the road, I finally got round to fitting a new derailleur. Also Shimano quick links are NOT QUICK!

Before....

...and after!

Calamity Strikes!

Last weekend headed down to Portishead to visit the grandparents. Opa was a little sad that we didn't turn up in the 'Yellow Peril' (apt name, will explain later) but at this point I still didn't know if the heating worked!
Had a lovely time, consumed a rather large amount of food and the weekend was finished off by this amazing vanilla panna cotta with raspberry coulis and controversial grated chocolate.

YUM

Now fast forward to Sunday evening, as the TV offering was pretty lacking the decision was made to try and get the van started. The ultimate aim was to fill up with diesel and add a cleaning additive to cut through some of the gunk in the tank. So after jump starting the van (as the van battery had completely given up the ghost) we drove to Stoke, setting off at about 7:15pm.

Good Points:

1. Managed to get heating! Basically played with the many toggles and had hot air flowing round the cab.

2. Van sat at 55mph (by sat nav) all the way to Stoke with no complaints.

3. Filled up with fuel and started first time.

BUT....

Upon leaving the petrol station I spotted that the engine was running very hot and the coolant light was on.

Tentatively drove back onto the dual carriage way and the engine starts to cool. Phew we thought.

We were wrong.

Suddenly the temp starts to rise and we loose all heat to the cab. Dropping down to 35mph we limp to the lay by at the end of the road and Sarah points out there there is smoke coming out of the engine bay.

I pull over very quickly.

Having heard of all the scary stories involving fire and camper vans we clear out the stuff form the back and open the engine bay. I'm stood at a safe distance with the fire extinguisher. Luckily at this point Dad points out that it's steam. Tension wound down a notch.

Note steam. 

Once the steam cleared it was time to investigate the engine. Sadly I didn't take any photos so you will have to take my word for it. Discovered that although the filler tank (?) was full, the other tank was pretty much empty. Probing the hoses connecting the two identified a pipe which wasn't attached to anything. First guess was a clip had come loose and the hose had come off. Luckily we had a cable tie so reattached until a proper metal clip could be added on.

Next stage was to try and start the van. Nope. Nothing. Nada. Not a peep from the starter motor. Fearing the worst a call was made to the RAC. We were advised there may be a 3 hour wait. It was at this point that I realised that draining the water from the sink system meant we couldn't even have a cup of tea :(

While waiting for the RAC man we attempted to start the van using the leisure battery. Partial success, got the engine to turn over (so starter motor worked) but not enough to start the van.

Which, it turns out, was a good thing.

RAC man turns up at about half 9 and promptly declares he used to have a T25! Anyway properly connects the pipe, fills up the bottle and bleeds the radiator. At this point there is a little bit of a silver lining, no rust under the front grill! Possibly the only part of the van that isn't. Sadly a check on the coolant revelled the presence of oil.

At this point my heart sank. Having previously wrote off 'The Pig' due to blowing a head gasket and ruining the engine I got pretty upset.

But it wasn't as bad as I thought, I had missed the word 'leaky' from the sentence and the RAC man assured me it was a 4 hour job to just change the seals. So the rest of the engine should be OK. Managed to limp home and hugged the dog for comfort. Back to Manchester by 2am. Ouch.

NO RUST!! (honest)

DIY Curtains - Part 3

FINISHED!

I now have 6 lovingly hand made VERY bright curtains. Took a while to get them finished as we had a weekend in Paris (pics and post will appear as soon as I get my camera back from Kat).

Curtain stack

Ok when I said finished, I actually meant the bulk of the work has been done and I'm now on to the finishing touches. These will include handy poppers on the tailgate curtains to keep them closed while we are snoozing (an upgrade from safety pins) and also some new curtain ties.

Keeping things as simple as possible for the curtains ties I just used the old ones as a template.

Lovely colour comparison here :-)

Drew round the old curtain tie, added a bit for seams then sewed along 3 sides with the fabric inside out.

Then turned it the right way round, ironed it flat and folded in the last edge to make it nice and neat. Then next step was to add some kind of fastening mechanism. The old curtains were attached to the van at one end and had a popper on the other end so they could loop round. I have gone for a slightly cheaper version and just used poppers to close the loop. I will attach the middle of the tie to the van (or maybe one end, not yet decided) to keep the curtains tamed while we are bouncing around the countryside :P

2nd time lucky, I sewed them on back to front the first time

Anyway, should be putting them in the van this weekend so will add photos of the van looking pretty and bright!

In other news, wood working has been happening. Tom has gleefully purchased himself a power tool. Can't give out too many details as it's going to be used for Christmas presents but I am allowed to post the pic of me messing around with it.

I'm wearing safety goggles....normally seen in the pool

First attempt at something

DIY Curtains - Part 2

Last night I finally got round to doing some more work on the curtains. Over the weekend I had finished hemming all the sides and bottoms of all the curtains but had to stop as I had no pins!
The bottom and side hems are very simple, just fabric folded over then folded over again. The corners are just square, no fancy bits. I ironed everything to keep the hems flat and neat. Did have a little problem with the fabric shifting slightly as it wasn't pinned it ended up looking surprisingly neat, if I do say so myself!

Simple hems

So once I had taken delivery of some pins from my little sister (thanks Sarah), it was time to get round to pinning on the curtain tape. I bought mine from Ikea at the same time as the fabric and then cut it in half to double the distance. This did give me some slightly raggedy edges but managed to keep them fairly intact.

Ironing the hems

As described in an earlier post, the top hem is double the size of the other hems to accommodate the curtain tape. I started off using my handy tape measure but soon was confident enough to fold the hem by eye. Luckily this worked.

First pin, first injury!

The curtain tape consists of two bits, the loops to attach your curtains hooks and the drawstring to create your ruffles. Should point out here, after looking at the final curtains, I think it would have been better to have put these on the other way up (you will see what I mean in later pictures).

All pinned and ready to sew

I managed to pin the entire length with only once pricking my finger. I would say that's quite an achievement! Next step was sewing. As in some places the fabric was doubled over a few times, I ended up using the sewing machine manually to make sure the needle didn't get stuck. All in all it was very easy, the pins even stopped any fabric slipping (should have used them before really).

Sew, sew, sew.

Should point out that this isn't my sewing machine, it's been borrowed off my granddad (Thanks Opa).

And finally, the moment you have all been waiting for....

The finished curtain! 

(yes I have only done one so far, and it was the smallest but hey)

Should brighten up the van a little

And yes they even have pleats

 As you can see in the final picture, the pleats are pretty close to the top. In the rest of the curtains I am going to flip the curtain tape so they are a bit lower down.

Anyway one down, five to go. 

This weekend I got my first flash!

Yup first time getting flashed and waved at by another VW driver :-) It happened to be a nice lady in a silver T5. It may have been a pitying wave. I would have tried to flash back but I still have issues finding things in the van.

Was back home at the weekend with the idea of sorting out the rust on the van and doing some insulating. Unfortunately the rust that we did find was a fair bit worse that expected. Treated both foot wells in the cab, might have accidentally put my finger through an unsuspecting patch on the passenger side but luckily it was a very tiny hole. Discovered both front door were rotted out at the bottom, which I am guessing means the windows are leaky. But anyway, treated the rust I could see then got the Father to give the patches a quick coat of white spray paint before it started hailing. Yup hailing. Welcome to winter.

In other news it was the first time Kat was able to ride in the van, think she enjoyed it given the grin on her face! Also for anyone from Sandbach, we managed 55mph on the speedo before the bridge on the by pass. And Dougie didn't sound like he was about to blow up, which is a plus. It is also pretty handy driving round with a tool box in the back, got to Mums house and had to utilise the 'Gear stick correction device' aka adjustable spanner, in fixing her toilet.

 Sadly didn't take many photos this weekend and the ones I did aren't uploading! But I did find the video Tom took of me the first time we went camping. Notice the camera shake.

DIY Curtains - Part 1a

This isn't a proper post. No this is me being a little bit proud that I have used a sewing machine!
Not only did I test out all the stitches, I made Alex a small and pointless pillowcase (it was approximately wallet sized) and I made a present for the kitchen.

If you squint, that line is straight. Honest.

Who needs a working boiler....I HAVE A DRAFT EXCLUDER SNAKE THINGY! Pretty much just a tube of left over fabric stuffed with plastic bags (these may get upgraded to rice or something similar). It does actually make quite a bit of difference.

Excluding drafts

So I am now happy to tackle the curtains. Need to purchase some pins first and acquire an iron to get nice straight hems but other than that am good to go.